Seminar for employers explores cultivating talent in tight job market

Janel Shoun | 07/16/2008

Used to be a company could hire a college-age intern to do all grunt work nobody else wanted to do, give him few resources and little supervision, and that student would still probably be happy to work for that company upon graduation.

Those days are long gone, say employment and internship experts. By 2008, the nation expects a shortage of 10 million workers, according to the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

The combination of an increasingly tight job market and a major change of thinking in the current generation means that companies have to compete more than ever to attract young talent and be more invested than ever to keep that talent loyal to their company.

Lipscomb University would like to help local companies meet that challenge, by offering “Internship Management 2.0,” an affordable seminar exploring the best practices of internship programs that serve both the student’s and the employer’s needs, on Tuesday, Aug. 5, at 8:30 a.m. at the Ezell Center on the Lipscomb campus. This employer seminar, held by the Lipscomb University Career Development Center, will cost $30.

Richard Bottner, founder and president of Intern Bridge, which conducts the nation’s largest annual research project on student internships, will be the keynote speaker. The seminar will also feature talks by Wayne Hampton, recruiter for the Disney Corporation, and Renee Bradford, a local human resources professional with more than 20 years experience and former co-chair of the Nashville chamber’s College Graduate Retention Task Force.

Participants will receive the chamber’s InternNashville Employer Resource Guide, a manual developed by the task force that retails for $55. The guide provides tools to create, revamp or restructure an internship program, including sample internship descriptions, surveys, intern handbooks, and more.

According to the chamber, the Nashville area population increased by 47% between 1990 and 2005, but the 25- to 34-year-old population increased by only 16%. This population growth comes at a time when the baby boomer generation is retiring, making manpower even more valuable.

The chamber’s graduate retention task force, also co-chaired by Lipscomb’s own Lisa Shacklett, spent the past year working to address the growing demands of the job market. The task force developed the resource guide as well as a plan to create a city-wide internship Website and a series of networking events.

“In January 2008, a comprehensive study of Middle Tennessee's workforce estimated that the region can expect more than 97,000 new-to-entry workers to join our workforce over the next ten years,” said Rebecca Myers, director of talent recruitment and retention at the Nashville Area Chamber.

“That is approximately enough young people to replace the generation of workers who are approaching retirement, but not enough to fill all the new jobs being created. Internships can build valuable connections between our students and local businesses and have an impact on the number of students who remain in Nashville to start their career.”

In such a competitive business climate, a lot of employers have jumped on the internship bandwagon without stopping to think about the fact that a bad experience for just one intern could hurt all of the company’s future recruiting efforts, said Leslie Shelby, assistant director of career development at Lipscomb University’s Career Development Center.

“Over 60% of students feel that the internship program they were a part of could use improvement – that’s an astonishing number,” said Bottner, who started Intern Bridge in 2005 as a result of his own bad internship experience. “College campuses are viral communities. The Facebook and iPod generation is built around community. Students will be ambassadors or adversaries to organizations. That outcome is entirely up to the employer.”

That and many other generational shifts in thinking have many baby boomer company managers scratching their heads and asking, “What do these kids want out of a job experience anyway?”

For one thing they want a project they can call their own, Shelby said. Some companies have restructured their internship programs to put student interns in charge of a particular project for the summer, giving them a feeling of ownership and allowing them to present the results they achieved at the end of the program.

“Students value the opportunity to work with a good supervisor, complete real work, and get paid!” said Bottner.

The Disney College Recruitment Program hires former interns as part-time recruiters to draw more students into the internship program. Disney provides specific marketing tools, but also encourages the students to use their own creativity when recruiting on campus. They receive free visits to Disney theme parks as compensation for the new students they recruit, Shelby said.

Companies are also beginning to market their programs differently, hosting all-day site visits for college students or career placement officers. Some are offering more innovative programs during their campus visits to draw the best students and give them a valued service, such as feedback on their interview skills.

Bottner’s Intern Bridge workshops normally cost each participant $175, but Lipscomb is offering this half-day seminar for just $30, which also includes the $55 resource guide from the chamber. More than 150 local employers attended the Lipscomb Career Center workshop last summer.

To register, contact Shelby at leslie.shelby@lipscomb.edu or at 615.966.6300. Click here to register online.